‘Gilets Jaunes’ of France from Brussels to Basra

From Brussels to Basra, gilets jaunes have brought visibility to people and their grievances per Jon Henley, The Guardian’s European affairs correspondent published on December 21, 2018, is the story of a movement that is increasingly apparent throughout the world and in particular in the MENA region .

Within days the campaign had
gathered 200,000 backers and spawned hundreds of local spinoffs across the
country; two weeks later, a video urging motorists to display their hi-vis
yellow vests behind their windscreens in solidarity garnered 4m views.

The gilets jaunes, named
after the vest drivers are required to carry in their vehicles, were born, and
since 17 November, the movement’s first nationwide day of action, its
sustained, sometimes violent protests have rocked France.

But not only France.
Mostly leaderless, unstructured and organised on social media, “yellow vest”
demonstrations have multiplied internationally, from Belgium to Bulgaria,
Serbia to Sweden and Israel to Iraq.

The popular anti-establishment
insurrection by France’s squeezed middle, living mostly in rural or
deindustrialised areas and small or medium-sized towns far from the globalised
cities where the wealth of the 21st century is increasingly concentrated, has
found a global echo.

As in France, where it has
overwhelming public support, these diverse national movements have brought together
people with disparate demands and political views but one overriding and common
complaint: they cannot make ends meet.

“If the hike in the price of
fuel triggered the yellow vest movement, it was not the root cause,” said the geographer Christophe Guilluy. “The
anger runs deeper, the result of an economic and cultural relegation that began
in the 80s … Western elites have gradually forgotten a people they no longer
see.”

Cheap, readily available,
easily identifiable and above all representing an obligation imposed by the
state, the the yellow hi-vis vest itself has proved an inspired choice of
symbol and has plainly played a big part in the movement’s rapid spread.

“The point, remember, of the
yellow vest is to ensure its wearer is visible on the road,” Guilluy said. “And
whatever the outcome of this conflict, the gilets jaunes have won in terms of
what really counts: the war of cultural representation. Working-class and lower
middle-class people are visible again.”

The revolt spread first to French-speaking Belgium, where
400 people have been arrested over the past few weeks as police used teargas
and water cannon to disperse crowds pelting them with flares, cobblestones and
billiard balls, and setting cars and trucks alight in Brussels, Charleroi, and
elsewhere.

Dismissive, like their
counterparts in France, of all their country’s established parties, Belgium’s
gilets jaunes, who have demanded the resignation of the prime minister,
Charles Michel,aim to launch a Mouvement citoyen belge (Belgian
citizens’ movement)to compete innext year’s European and
Belgian federal elections.

There have been largely peaceful
yellow vest protests in half a dozen Dutch cities including Rotterdam, where marcher Ieneke
Lambermont said her children had to “pay taxes everywhere, and can’t get
housing anymore”. Things were “not going well in Dutch society”, she said. “The
social welfare net we grew up with is gone.”

In Italy an anti-austerity,
anti-EU protest group inspired by the gilets jaunes has garnered thousands of supporters online and
plans a large rally in January, while in Spain Facebook groups of chalecos
amarillos plan to begin demonstrating in Madrid in the new year because
“it’s worse here than in France”.

Protesters wearing yellow vests in Bulgaria, the
EU’s poorest member, have blocked major roads including the border crossings
with Turkey and Greece, demanding not just cheaper fuel and higher living
standards but the departure of a government they likened to “the mafia”.

A civil rights organisation and far-right
politicians have adopted yellow vests – for different reasons – in Serbia,
while beyond Europe gilets jaunes protests have also occurred in Canada (over the UN migration pact), Israel and Jordan (over corruption and the high
cost of living).

As
2018 draws to a close….

… we’re asking readers to make
an end of year or ongoing contribution in support of The Guardian’s independent
journalism.

Three years ago we set out to
make The Guardian sustainable by deepening our relationship with our readers.
The same technologies that connected us with a global audience had also shifted
advertising revenues away from news publishers. We decided to seek an approach
that would allow us to keep our journalism open and accessible to everyone,
regardless of where they live or what they can afford.

More than one million readers
have now supported our independent, investigative journalism through
contributions, membership or subscriptions, which has played such an important
part in helping The Guardian overcome a perilous financial situation globally.
We want to thank you for all of your support. But we have to maintain and build
on that support for every year to come.

Sustained support from our readers
enables us to continue pursuing difficult stories in challenging times of
political upheaval, when factual reporting has never been more critical. The
Guardian is editorially independent – our journalism is free from commercial
bias and not influenced by billionaire owners, politicians or shareholders. No
one edits our editor. No one steers our opinion. This is important because it
enables us to give a voice to those less heard, challenge the powerful and hold
them to account. Readers’ support means we can continue bringing The Guardian’s
independent journalism to the world.

Please make an end of year
contribution today to help us deliver the independent journalism the world
needs for 2019 and beyond.